Chasing the Dragon of Film Financing
Posted: Sunday, July 10, 2011
by Sid Kali
Slice of Americana Films
Chasing the dragon of film financing is a certain path that indie movie producers have to take. There is no way around needing money to make a movie. Like any high you experience in life there’s a rush and then a crash sometimes. Indie film funding is unstable at best. Outside of family, friends or crowdfunding you’re going to have to deal with film investors with attorneys that don’t want to piss away money on a movie that can’t make them money.
Many movie distributors that cater to true indie filmmakers normally only give a 25K to 50K advance against royalties or a buyout in the same price range. Then you usually don’t see another dollar sent your way. So, it doesn’t change the deal in reality. There are distributors that really financially take care of business for indie producers and pay them what’s earned. I’ve had good and bad deals. This is life in the entertainment business and any business where money changes hands.
Indie Film Producer Film Financing Dance
What I’m seeing more meeting with movie investors and pitching “Killing the Azul’s” is room for indie films in a business deal is getting smaller. Last week one savvy investor used to real estate development deals told me point blank that self-distribution takes too long and most deals for indie movies have no meat on the bone.
There wasn’t shit I could say, he was right. In real estate development they call it improvement costs for raw land. In the indie film business it can translate to hiring actors or celebrities with some kind of name recognition and shooting on a RED camera package. I’m only sharing on an indie level. Hollywood indie films are produced for millions. Indie films are produced with hundreds or thousands, never close to a million dollars.
At the end you have to make the numbers work for film financing to make sure you can finish a movie and pay investors a profit. The best part of crowdfunding and donations is you’re not on the hook to pay people back with interest. It’s like your gambling for free, no risk when you don’t have to worry about losing. You make your movie and if it makes money great, if it doesn’t no big deal, there are no investors you have to pay with interest.
The downside to crowdfunding or donations is you never get that experience of making a movie like it’s a real business. Filmmaking is a business down to the last penny. I know this developer from a past deal and he still shot me out of the water.
Movie investors that have disposal cash to fund a project read what’s happening with distribution. They understand deal points in contracts. Words and hope are meaningless in a pitch meeting. It boils down to risk and reward for investors. A producer that has a locked deal with Cinemax hit this real estate developer up for a 750K to shoot 3 movies. He shot that producer down flat. Reasons were the budgets were too high for what the movies would earn off a Cinemax deal and DVD sales wouldn’t be much.
I’m cool with this real estate developer and he talks straight about business with me. We’re not cool enough where he will invest in a movie that has too much risk and not enough reward. For every indie movie that hits the jackpot there are countless other ones that never break even. That’s the reality of this business.
Lesson I’m learning is streamline your budget even more and think distribution before writing a screenplay. There is money to be made in entertainment at the true indie level as long you don’t caught up in the Hollywood indie movie frame of mind. I love creative vision etc. Creative vision only applies to filmmakers when they make people money. Pick and choose your spots to be an artistic cinema rebel.
It sucks to have to have think money before ever making a movie, but that what it takes to make it. With “Killing the Azul’s” we have a cast of actors we want to hire and a certain size crew we’ll need to make the movie within a reasonable indie budget. Now I’m thinking we need to streamline the budget even more. Either we will need to budget for a smaller crew or not hire the actors we want to.
We’re looking at distribution and marketing before one frame is shot. Talking to distributors first is a good way to see if there is a market for your movie. Shooting it, then shopping it is risky. If an actor really wants to be in your movie they can give you a letter of intent. It’s just an agreement that says if you get the money to make your movie they will be in it. Before pitching to movie investors reach out to distributors with a package to see if the actors add any value to your movie.
They’ll never give you a number or any deal points, but they will tell you if it’s worth spending money on a certain actor on their reaction to the names attached. Chasing the dragon of film financing is going to be something most filmmakers have to do to get funds outside of money from friends, family or crowdfunding. It’s a beautiful high when you have the right budget to attract investors and make money from your work. This is indie filmmaker Sid Kali typing fade to black.
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